Too Late
by Maxy Steel
Summary: Super short and sweet. A weird concept, which jumped me as I was starting something else. Enjoy!


_General disclaimer: Max Steel belongs to many companies, Kids' WB!, two different computer animation companies, and a whole mess-o corporate executives. This story is my personal work derived from my inner child getting hold of an uzi and obliterating my good side._

  


**TOO LATE **

**BY:**

**Maxy Steel**

  


Fire was everywhere. Max Steel, also known as Josh McGrath, covered his mouth and wiped at his watering eyes as he darted about the building. There were still hostages somewhere in this inferno, and he had no intention of leaving until he'd found all of them. It was his job.

"Bro...ugh, any readings?" he gasped.

"None at all. Get out of there, Steel. You're only going to get yourself killed," Berto snapped firmly. Max chuckled, ending in a weak cough. _You know me, bro. I don't leave until everyone else is safe_, he muttered to himself. But, it was getting stifling, even for him. 

"Max, evacuate now," a new voice joined, with more authority than the Spanish doctor. The brunette agent laughed to himself, racing up another floor.

"Hi, honey. Don't worry, I'll be down in a minute," he responded. An irritated and worried sigh replied to his attitude. Rachel put a hand to her head. She loved him, but he was just so stubborn. And that was putting it lightly. She pressed her headset a little harder against her ear.

"Don't make me repeat myself or come up there, love," she growled, a threatening note in her voice. For a moment, Max's face was void of it's cheer.

"Don't even joke, Rach. I don't want my little girls growing up without their mother," he scolded, jumping over a fallen door. The smoke was not only hard to see through, it was making him whoosy and nauseated. He put a hand on the wall for balance.

"And I don't want them to be fatherless. So get down here now!" the blond agent yelled back at him. Max chuckled weakly again.

"_Hermano_, listen to your wife. The timer runs down in three minutes. That's enough time to get out of there," Berto piped. His older partner pushed away from the wall.

"Max, Josh. This is how your father was lost. Don't do the same thing," Rachel begged. The comment seemed to stir a reaction inside the agent in the building.

"I'm on my way out," he announced. _Please don't let there be any people left in here_, he prayed silently, just as the a soft beep from the top floor. In a shattering of broken glass, splintered wood, and brick, the explosion tore out the floors one by one, at lightning speed. Max had been on the sixth floor of the ten story building.

"MAX!" Rachel screamed into the headset. Berto jumped as the monitor on his left flat-lined, while his veiwscreen fizzled into static. He rushed to run a diagnostic, praying it was a glitch.

"_Hermano_, are you there?!" he demanded into his own headset. No response from the agent. He hit the bio-link feedback. The only response was the steady blaring wail of the heart monitor. 

"Berto, tell me he's still alive," Rachel's voice came across. She wasn't trying to hide her emotions. He could tell she was on the verge of tears. But he couldn't believe it. No way a mere bomb could have taken out Max Steel after eight years at N-Tek. Not when he had a wife, two little girls, and a father still left. Not when his best friend was trying to get him back. But it was possible. It had happened.

"My monitors are dead. I'm sorry, Rachel," Berto replied, his own voice tense with emotion. Max was his older brother, his best friend. Why couldn't things just be all right? He heard Rachel begin to sob over his headset.

"No...you're wrong. Max wouldn't die this easily," she said in a shuddering voice. Berto hung his head in silence. He'd been trying to raise Max for the last few minutes. But nothing had come up. The truth was harsh, but it was still truth. Max was dead at age 27. Sirens in the background on Rachel's end indicated that the cavalry had arrived...too late.

  


_Just another piece of evidence of just how mentally disturbed I am. There will be a later story with similar reference to Max's daughters, but this was just an alternate concept that happened to dip in and slap me in the face before I could start in with the real story. Catch ya later! Luv ya all!_

-Maxy Steel


End file.
